Just a passing thought: re-visiting a remarkable place, especially after the passage of some years, is like re-reading a good book. Or visiting old friends once again.

That was on my mind, in the company of old friends, as we came to Tahquamenon Falls State Park, conveniently located only about 20 miles from Whitefish Point, and a bit inland. The last time I was there, I was with small children —

— who are now grown, was in the first year of a dozen as a freelance writer, and rarely saw the people I was now spending about a week with.

The Tahquamenon River isn’t that long, about 90 miles entirely in the Upper Peninsula. The state park encompasses much of its course, but especially the features you come to see: the waterfalls. Or rather, as I told my friends, teafalls.

“Because the headwaters of the river are located in a boreal wetland that is rich in cedar, spruce and hemlock trees, the river’s waters carry a significant amount of tannin in solution,” notes Wiki. As found in tea, coffee, wine and chocolate, among other things that please us human beings immensely.

We arrived at the Lower Falls first. That’s the way to do it. That way, you see an impressive series of smaller cataracts from a path that follows the edge of the river, and loops around a small island above most of the falls. Later come the Upper Falls, and its impressive single drop.

Below the Lower Falls, the tea color isn’t that noticeable.

But at the falls, it is.

People frolicked in the water close to the falls, despite the strong-looking current.

A trail along the river leads from the Lower Falls to the Upper Falls, but signs called it “difficult,” and four miles long besides. It’s usually good to pay attention to such signs, so we opted to drive to the Upper Falls.

Rather than a series of smaller drops, it’s one big waterfall.

One big teafall, that is. Definitely a place worth visiting again, like many others in the UP.