The reserve is located on the border with Slovakia in the Western Beskidy Mountains. Babia Góra is the second highest massif () in Poland and forms part of the watershed boundary between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea basins. There are four environments that occur as the altitude increases. The forest belt is divided into a lower belt (up to ), consisting of forests of European beech (Fagus sylvatica), silver fir (Abies alba) and Carpathian spruce (Picea abies), and the upper belt (up to ) consisting of Carpathian spruce forest. Above the forest is the subalpine belt (up to ) with dwarf mountain pine (Pinetum mughi) and low-growth European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). At the highest slopes is the alpine grassland belt (up to ) consisting of lichen-covered siliceous bedrock with tussock-based grasses like (Festuca supina) and (Avenella flexuosa).