Habitats encompass a wide range of lowland and montane areas, including deserts, prairies, sandhills, shrublands, woodlands, forests, canyons, streamsides, and semi-agricultural areas. These snakes are absent from the driest deserts and highest mountains (subalpine zones and higher). They commonly climb shrubs and small trees. When inactive, they hide underground, in crevices, or under surface cover. Adults often hibernate communally, sometimes partly submerged in water. Eggs are laid in underground tunnels or burrows, rotting stumps, sawdust piles, or under rocks. Oviposition sites may be up to at least several hundred meters from the usual home range (Brown and Parker 1976, Iverson et al. 1995).

This species occurs through most of the United States, and ranges into southern Canada and northern and eastern Mexico, discontinuously southward to Guatemala and Belize. It extends from southern British Columbia, southern Saskatchewan, Wisconsin, Michigan, southern Ontario, New York, and southern Maine southward in the United States to southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, the Gulf Coast, and southern Florida, and southward through northeastern, central, and southern Mexico to Guatemala and Belize (Wilson 1978, Campbell 1998, Lee 2000, Stafford and Meyer 2000, Ernst and Ernst 2003, Stebbins 2003). Elevational range extends from sea level to about 2,550 meters (8,300 feet). A record for Durango, Mexico, evidently is erroneous (Webb 2001).

Currently, this species is of relatively low conservation concern and does not require significant additional protection or major management, monitoring, or research action, other than clarification of the taxonomic status of various subpopulations. Many occurrences are in national parks and other protected areas.