This species is wide ranging in the higher regions of the Sierra Madre Occidental in the states of NW Mexico as far south as northern Durango and Sinaloa. It occurs in the United States only in the Chiricahua and Huachuca Mountains of SE Arizona and the adjacent Animas Mountains of SW New Mexico. It is replaced in central and southern Mexico by the related species, C. pectinata. Among the North American Castillejas found north of Mexico, Castilleja patriotica is unique in the widely divaricate side-lobes of its divided leaves.