Penstemon crandallii has stems covered in fine or stiff hairs that point backwards and grow 2 to 28 centimeters long.

[4] The largest proportion of the iridoid glycoside in Penstemon crandallii is one named plantarenaloside.

In the southwest corner of the state it grows in Montezuma, Dolores, Archuleta, Ouray, and Hinsdale counties.

[9] The botanist Francis W. Pennell described a species in 1920 which he named Penstemon glabrescens.

This was reevaluated as a variety by Craig Carl Freeman in 2017 after having been described as Penstemon coloradoensis var.

[11] This variety was described as Penstemon procumbens by the botanist Edward Lee Greene in 1901.

[12] It only grows in the state of Colorado and is definitely known only from Carbon Peak and Kebler Pass in the West Elk Mountains.

[15] The species name of crandallii was selected to honor Charles Spencer Crandall, a professor at what eventually became Colorado State University.

[16] The range of Penstemon crandallii extends over much of western Colorado into portions of New Mexico and Utah.

In Colorado it grows as far north as Routt County and south through the central mountains and west.

[11] It is associated with sagebrush steppe, rocky scree, pinyon–juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine forests, and with scrub oak.