The typical habitat of this species includes canyons, foothills, buttes, and erosion gullies of rocky desert areas (Lowe et al. 1986, Ernst and Ernst 2003); sometimes this snake ranges away from rocks into sandy arroyos or onto desert flats with shrubs and animal burrows for cover (Grismer 2002, Stebbins 2003). Vegetation may include sagebrush, creosote bush, cacti, thorn scrub, chaparral (uncommonly), or pinyon-juniper woodland (Stebbins 2003). This is a terrestrial species that occasionally climbs into low vegetation. When inactive, it occurs under rocks or bushes or in crevices, caves, abandoned mines, or animal burrows.

The species' range extends from southwestern Utah, southern Nevada, southeastern California, and western Arizona in the United States, south to the tip of Baja California (including islands in the Gulf of California and Isla Santa Margarita off the Pacific coast) and extreme northwestern Sonora, Mexico, at elevations from sea level to about 2,440m asl (8,000 feet) (Grismer 2002, Stebbins 2003).

Many occurrences of this species are in protected areas.