VCRR: a well-kept secret

Greg you hit it on the head. The best tourist road for scenery outside of Colorado and nobody talks about it. They seeem to spend a lot of money promoting it in the Verde Valley, but I do not remember seeing much promotion of it in other parts of "the Zone".
The GCRy has a somewhat notorious reputation for their official unfriendliness to railfans.(This never included their employees by and large, who I found very friendly) They had a roundhouse foreman who loved yelling guys away from their shop, even challenging those escorted by employees. I don't think that fellow is still there. I am not surprised they were uncooperative with you ten years ago.