Whitebark Pine is limited in distribution to the high mountains of western North America, where it has been present for the past 8,000 years. It occurs along high-elevation ridges, and is therefore not contiguous. Whitebark Pine forests extend longitudinally between 107° and 128° West and latitudinally between 37° and 55° North (Arno and Hoff 1990, McCaughey and Schmidt 1990). In Canada, it grows along the coastal range in British Columbia and in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. In the USA the range extends from the Canadian border of the Cascade Mountains through Washington and Oregon to southern California and is at high altitudes throughout the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Many Whitebark Pine stands are geographically isolated by large intervening valleys between them (Arno and Hoff 1990). Whitebark Pine is typically found just below the alpine timberline and extends downward in elevation into associations with several other conifers. The upper elevation limits of Whitebark Pine decrease with increasing latitude. It occurs as high as 3,050–3,660 m in the Sierra Nevada and 2,590–3,200 m in western Wyoming; and as low as 900 m in the northern limits of its range in British Colombia (Arno and Hoff 1990).