This pocket mouse is endemic to California in the United States. It is found in the Tehachapi Mountains and the lower slopes of the western Sierra Nevada at elevations of up to . It also occurs in the upper Sacramento Valley, the San Joaquin Valley and the Salinas Valley, and southwards to the Mojave Desert. It occurs in the Upper Sonoran life zone, characterized by grassland and semi-desert vegetation, and the Lower Sonoran life zone, hot desert with creosote bush and Joshua tree.