Credit: Photos by Gerald E. McLeod

Stag Leap Country Cabins sits on 200 secluded acres outside of Nacogdoches deep in the Piney Woods. The canopy of trees shades the red dirt roads to the cabins in a dappled light that dances with every breeze.

If you didn’t know there were eight cabins on the property, or you didn’t take a self-guided golf-cart tour of the pine-needle-covered trails, you might think you have the entire place to yourself. 

Mattie Collins, who owns the getaway cabins with her husband Wayne and son Kirby, says the guest houses offer a sense of solitude in the woods. “People like to stay here for the privacy, to just get away from the city,” Mattie says. 

Each cabin includes a full kitchen and outdoor grill, and most have a Jacuzzi tub and electric log fireplace. If you can’t break away from the outside world entirely, there is satellite television and wireless internet.

The houses in the woods range from a one-bedroom cottage to a three-bedroom lodge. Staying in one of the cabins is like visiting a friend’s home. No two cabins are alike, but all are homey and just a bit rustic. One thing the cottages have in common is access to the outdoors from a big porch.

Mattie says the pandemic has caused them to increase their cleaning protocol. Rentals are spaced at least a day apart to allow for more meticulous sanitizing and cleaning. “Our guests trust that they’re coming to a safe place,” she says. “And we want them to continue to feel that way.”

Stag Leap Country Cabins are less than 10 miles west of Nacog­doches. For more information, go to www.stagleap.com.


1,515th in a series. Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.

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Gerald E. McLeod joined the Chronicle staff in November 1980 as a graphic designer. In April 1991 he began writing the “Day Trips” column. Besides the weekly travel column, he contributed “101 Swimming Holes,” “Guide to Central Texas Barbecue,” and “Guide to the Texas Hill Country.” His first 200 columns have been published in Day Trips Vol. I and Day Trips Vol. II.