The species' habitats include shrublands, arid grasslands, sagebrush flats, canyons, pinyon-juniper woodland, pine-oak woodland, and rocky stream courses. Microhabitats are terrestrial and arboreal. It retreats underground or into deep crevices in cold weather. Eggs usually are laid in abandoned small mammal burrows (sometimes communal with conspecifics or with other snake species).

The species' range extends from southeastern Washington and southern Idaho south through Oregon, eastern California, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, western and central Texas, in the United Sates, to Chihuahua, western Coahuila, Durango, and Zacatecas to northeastern Jalisco in Mexico; the eastern and southern range limits in Mexico are poorly understood (Camper and Dixon 1994). The elevational range extends to 3,077 m asl in Inyo County, California (Stumpel 1995).

Many occurrences of this species in the United States are in protected areas. In the southern extent of the range in Mexico the species occurs in few if any protected areas.