We did all of these things. Although the river loop wasn't much of a loop since we couldn't find the path where it was covered in snow/ice (and we weren't confident that we would not slip into the cold river). So we hiked up to Savage Rock, too.

The park-side view of McKinley was cloudy, though it cleared up as we were leaving the park. The view from Mile 135 was AMAZING. The peak was so clear, above some thin clouds. I hear it's rare to see the peak so clearly. We stopped in Talkeetna on the way back and had great food at the Roadhouse. I was hoping to stop into some stores, but I didn't realize how late it was since it was light out, everything was closed!

This Saturday we will definitely explore south of Anchorage before I go home! Thanks for your help John!

Glad you had a good time and saw the Mountain. When I passed the mile 135 pullout last month, it was still closed with a lot of unplowed snow!

It is incredible when you can see the Mountain, isn't it? The view as you drive into Talkeetna is also really nice.

Enjoy Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage! I really enjoy that area.

PS You are really fortunate - I just read on the Denali NP website that the road is again closed at mile 3 (the park HQ) due to 5" of snow between mile 7 and the Savage River!

If you're referring to spring 2008, we had a ridiculously lousy spring/summer that year. Specifically, that was the year it snowed 2 feet in Anchorage on April 25th, followed by a summer that had a whopping two (2!) days that broke 70 degrees.

April this year was a bit gloomy, but Anchorage is very nice right now; mostly sunny days and highs around 60.

We pulled over even though the pullout was closed and there was still snow on the ground. But I imagine it wasn't walkable when you were here.

My friends have been saying they were told the park is closed but I kept insisting that it wasn't. Oops! It was snowing a bit when we were there, but it wasn't the type of snow that accumulates. I guess we really had great timing!

Tomorrow we will probably drive south, even though we saw a lot from the train a few days ago (we went down to a glacier then headed back up to Anchorage). I suppose since we've seen the scenery the driver won't be too distracted!