According to Savage (2002) and Frost (2015), "Craugastor rugosus" is now found on the slopes and lowlands facing the Pacific from the downstream region of the Rio Carara in Costa Rica southwards to the southern part of far western Panama. However, it is possible that the distribution of this species in fact stretches further north and east than indicated, although the history of taxonomic confusion makes it complicated to ascertain. Henry Sterling Blair collected a specimen for the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University in Zent, Limón Province, Costa Rica, in 1996. During the time Nicaragua was occupied by the USA, of the 31 specimens formerly thought to be "C. rugosus" two specimens which were collected at what the Americans called "Tuli Creek" in 1916 (the Tule River in south of San Miguelito in Río San Juan Department), are still labelled as such, also kept at the MCZ, and the MCZ furthermore has a specimen said to be collected in 1992 at the Escondido River near Bluefields in Nicaragua.