Canyon of The Eagles

I am sitting here in Burnet Texas in 100° plus weather enjoying a wonderful stay at the Canyon of the Eagles Resort.  Pat and I find it difficult to plan a short getaway because we are always having to worry about the food. Sometimes we just want to get away and not have to plan our meals. I did a Google search on both vegan resorts in Texas and whole food plant based resorts in Texas and surprisingly came across a 2017 blog post written about the wonderful chef at Canyon of the Eagles resort.  Chef Matthew Wayland had prepared some awesome vegan food years ago, so I tracked him down!   I emailed him before we booked a short stay and explained to him our dietary needs of whole food plant-based, SOS free meal requirements.  Once he acknowledged that he could take care of us, we booked our stay!   I made meal reservations for breakfast, lunch and dinner for our entire stay.  Now that food was taken care of, we can enjoy our stay!   Canyon of the Eagles is situated on the north side of Lake Buchanan, amongst the beautiful scenery of the Texas hill country. It is perhaps an hour and a half drive away from Austin Texas. From Dallas, it only took us about 3 1/2 hours.  There are 940 acres with 16 miles of maintained trails, and 3 miles of private lake Buchanan shoreline (under non drought conditions!).  They have 61 guest rooms with porches, 25 full service RV sites and 33 wooded campsites for those wanting to get out into nature even more!   

The accommodations are simple but adequate.  Everything has been designed to blend into the natural settings, so the resort accommodations are more like upscale cabins, but with window ac units for each room.  Our room has 2 queen beds, a small coffee maker, microwave and a small fridge.  Each cabin/room has two rocking chairs on both sides of the porches.  We expect the animal sightings to increase as the day progresses.  We have seen fresh deer scat everywhere, lizards darting around and heard various birds calls.

Canyon of the Eagles is a year-round nature-based park and resort where “you can be active, do absolutely nothing, or both “.  They have various activities planned throughout the week, ranging from nature talks, nature/canyon walks, weekend live music on the patio,  outdoor movie night under the stars and an observatory located right within the park.  The Resort follows the “dark sky”protocol because of the wonderful stargazing opportunities and the presence of the observatory right within the park!    We have booked reservations for both Friday and Saturday night at the observatory.  When it is not drought season, they also have free guided boat tours and kayaks to use on Lake Buchanan.   For an additional fee, they have a local massage therapist that will come to your room!

There is a small, but quaint pool and hot tub that will feel good in this Texas heat!

We arrived just in time for lunch and went directly to the Overlook Restaurant (pics explain the name) where we received 5 star service!   Tami, the lovely restaurant manager greeted us warmly, and Valerie and Jaime our sweet waitresses never let our glasses get half empty.

Head Chef Matthew and his Sous Chefs Jesse and Karl came out to meet us and told us how excited they were to accommodate our dietary needs.  And this is only Day 1!   More updates and pics to follow!  Have a wonderful day, and keep eating those healing plants!   Pat and Dianne

PS: This place is the best non-advertised Whole Food Plant Based Texas Resort or Texas Vegan Resort we have stumbled upon! You must come and taste Chef Matthew and his teams special creations, and take in some of the Texas Hill Country beauty while you are here! You need to email him 2-3 weeks prior to your visit at matthew@canyonoftheeagles.com. Be sure to tell him you heard about his inspiring healthy food creations from Plant Based Dallas!

The lunch entree pictured was Porcini roasted mushrooms over ancient grains (quinoa, amaranth and farro) with wilted spinach, scallions and carrots

Dessert was roasted pineapple and strawberries over a blueberry agave sauce with fresh blueberries and fig, vanilla balsamic vinegar