This species is a mountain rock dweller of pine-oak woodland, grassy and brushy areas, and open coniferous forest, usually occurring on well-lit rocky slopes such as south-facing talus (Stebbins 2003, Campbell and Lamar 2004). In Mexico, it is also found in grassy-shrubby mountain valleys where prey is abundant, on pinyon pine-agave slopes, and in limestone-scrub oak-agave habitats where pines have been reduced by logging (the latter two habitats pertain to the eastern subspecies miquihuanus, Armstrong and Murphy 1979). This snake was found among stumps and coarse woody debris in July in high-elevation pine-oak forest in Sierra del Nido, Chihuahua (Bryson et al. 2002). In autumn (fall), individuals may shift from summer habitat to a different winter habitat (e.g., a different talus slope or beneath surface cover in a non-talus site (Prival et al. 2003).

The species' range extends from southeastern Arizona in the United States (Chiricahua, Huachuca, Pinaleno, Dos Cabezas, and Santa Rita mountains) southward in Mexico through the Sierra Madre Occidental to northeastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, and Durango, and in the Sierra Madre Oriental of southeastern Coahuila, southern Nuevo Leon, southwestern Tamaulipas, and north-central San Luis Potosi, and in Aguascalientes (Prival et al. 2002, Campbell and Lamar 2004). Its elevational range is from 1,220 to 3,200 m asl (4,000 to 10,500 feet) (Stebbins 2003); lower limit is about 1,850 m according to Campbell and Lamar (2004). Prival et al. (2002) found this species at 2,530 to 2,900 m asl in the Chiricahua Mountains.

Many occurrences of this species are protected areas or are in rough, remote areas not subject to major threats.