It is located in the Chama River Canyon Wilderness area 75 miles north of Santa Fe.

In 1983 the monastery was received into the English Province of the Subiaco Congregation as a Conventual Priory, and in 1996, it became an autonomous Abbey.

Christ in the Desert has three daughter houses: Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, and Monasterio Benedictino De Santa María y Todos Los Santos in Mexico, and the Benedictine Monastery of Thien Tam (Heavenly Heart) in Kerens, Texas.

It has a guesthouse in which men and women can stay and join the monks in the chapel to share in the monastic Divine Office and in the Mass.

In an effort to balance generating income for support with the monastic way of life, the monks have tested a number of activities.