I would tend to suggest the more southern route also, I had an experience with a blizzard in NM which kept I-40 closed for a couple of days around that time of year (may have been early April) about 10-15 years ago, I did not see the I-40 conditions first hand, I stopped in Roswell early that day after running into the snow which was piling up fast just after leaving Carlsbad (75 miles south). That was a memorable adventuresome couple of days, first seeing the caverns, then spending the night in a Quality Inn (former external corridor Holiday Inn) a section of the 2nd floor walkway collapsed just after I checked in about 30 feet from my room, they had a construction crew out shoring up the rest of the walkway running power tools until about midnight.
