Sclerocactus wrightiae has been collected in several locations in Emery and Wayne Counties in Utah. S. wrightiae is unlike many of Utah's endemics which are restricted to habitats with a narrow range of features, e.g., a single geologic formation or soil parent material. Soil types where this species is found range from clays to sandy silts and fine sands. Populations are known from areas with well-developed gypsum layers and from areas with little or no gypsum. Soils at most of the sites possess a surface structure with at least some cryptogamic crust.
Plants are rare or absent where the cryptogamic crust has been destroyed or is undeveloped.
Sites are usually littered with sandstone or basalt gravels, cobbles, and boulders. The biotic environment of most sites is arid, with widely spaced shrubs, perennial herbs, bunch grasses, or scattered pinyon and juniper providing very little surface coverage. Salt desert shrub and pinyon-juniper are the community types reported. Important species include Pinus edulis , Juniperus osteosperma , Atriplex cuneata , A. confertifolia , A. corrugata , and Hilaria jamesii . Inventories, general floral collections, and agency reports have expanded our knowledge of this species' distribution.