[citation needed] Pinus gordoniana is typically a tall tree, up to 45 meters in height, with a single strait trunk up to 100 cm in diameter at the base.

As trees mature the bark becomes rough and scaly, and divided into large irregular plates by deep fissures.

[3] Pinus gordoniana inhabits the mountains of western and central Mexico, where it grows between 1100 and 2700 meters elevation.

[1] It is found in the southern Sierra Madre Occidental up to the crest of the mountains along the border of Sinaloa and Durango, in the western Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, México and Morelos, and locally in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero and Oaxaca.

In high-elevation, high-rainfall sites in the Sierra Madre Occidental, it occurs with species of Abies, Picea, and Cupressus lusitanica.