No Destination: Yuko-En on the Elkhorn

The Arched Bridge at Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Georgetown, Ky.

The Official Kentucky-Japan Friendship Garden, Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, is located on the north fork of the Elkhorn Creek in Georgetown, Ky. It is a beautiful garden with a large koi pond, a rock zen garden, a Tokugawa entrance gate and stone gardens. Pictured above is the Arched Bridge, painted Japanese red, which crosses a dry rock stream and symbolizes streams flowing down Japan's volcanic peaks. It is one of the largest Japanese gardens in the United States.

Fourteen hundred truckloads of dirt was unloaded onto the site during construction in 2000, converting the former pasture (and site of an 1898 monastery) into the garden. It was declared the Kentucky's "Official" Japanese garden in 2000 by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly; funding was provided by many local businesses, including (not surprisingly) Toyota.  A second phase, not completed, will include a bonsai house, a maple grove and a tea garden.