Even in low-snow conditions, the advantage of the north-side approach along the creek bank is that it's mostly level. The boulders are mostly large, as I remember it you are walking around and clambering over them rather than sliding on ball-bearing scree.
If you park at the bridge, to walk all the way uphill on the road, and then down to the river, and reverse that coming out, adds something like 300-400m of total elevation gain to the day. The north bank approach is arguably more direct than this and is essentially flat (maybe 50m of elevation gain from the car to the start of the gully approach)