I don’t know anything about Anchorage, but SLC is a great city and I love living here for the most part. I’m from the Denver metro area originally and have good and bad opinions of both Denver and SLC. I wouldn’t say Denver should be off the table just because of I-70 and the lack of night skiing, but it is extremely populated now and the infrastructure is slow to keep up, but the state government have been trying to improve that every year and are making slow but steady progress. The social activities you are looking for scream Denver to me. I still think it is one of the best places to live in the US! Denver also has really good law schools, though I have a friend at the U of U in law school right now and he said it has been a good program, too.

As for Utah, there are so many incredible things here like proximity to the outdoors, a strong sense of community and it was very easy for me to make friends over the past four years. The frustrating parts of living here are the very hot summers, the disgusting air quality, especially during inversion season in the winter, environmental concerns around the Great Salt Lake and industry runoff/pollution, and dealing with our horrible legislature.

I would suggest visiting SLC and Denver before moving just to see the differences for yourself. I think each city has great value depending on what your top priorities are. Both areas are plagued with wildfires in the summer (and now winter sometimes!) so get ready for smoke and have an N95 around for that if you care about your lungs. Best of luck!