Half Dome rises in sharp relief against a receding range of granite peaks in this albumen stereoview by Carleton Watkins, published under his Pacific Coast Series imprint at 429 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. The view was copyrighted in 1867 and carries series number 1153, placing it among Watkins's most celebrated Yosemite productions. The vantage point at Glacier Point frames the dome's vertical northwest face between massive granite boulders in the immediate foreground, lending the composition a dramatic sense of depth and scale.

The foreground boulders occupy the upper corners of both frames, their rough, lichen-streaked surfaces contrasting with the smooth, striated granite of Half Dome's sheer face below. A broad panorama of the High Sierra fills the middle and far distance, while scattered conifers cling to the lower slopes of the dome and adjacent ridgelines. The yellow card mount is consistent with Watkins's Pacific Coast Series production of the late 1860s and early 1870s.

Watkins's Yosemite stereoviews were among the most influential landscape photographs produced in nineteenth-century America, directly informing the congressional debate that led to Yosemite's federal protection in 1864 and cementing his reputation as the foremost photographer of the American West.

The recto title reads "Tasayac, or the Half Dome, from Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Cal." with series number 1153. A period ink inscription on the lower left reads "Summit of Tasayac is 6000 feet above the valley," dated 2/16/1870. A small pencil letter "m" appears on the reverse.