April weather in central & southern Utah
 

Considering a couple of weeks visiting national parks/monuments in Utah in mid-April following a convention in Vegas. Have visited Zion and Bryce on a previous trip, so we're primarily interested in Grand Staircase Escalante, Capital Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Natural Bridges, and maybe some places in AZ. Have weather concerns - don't want to encounter much snow and no snowy roads. Have read some posts from people who are apparently heading the same way after [probably] the same convention and learned that we could encounter snow from Torrey to Boulder, might find snowy conditions on Rt. 12, there might be snow in Bryce, that there's a heavy snowpack this year. Have already written off Mesa Verde because of possible snow and wonder if I should postpone this trip to May and concentrate on Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley in April on a shorter trip.

Can anyone advise me of an itinerary including some of the destinations above where we would be unlikely to find bad road conditions? (We've lived in FL for the last 30+ years and ANY snow more than a bare trace is a bad road condition as far as I'm concerned.)

We've visited the area several times in April and only encountered active snow once and that didn't stick on the roads and was gone within a couple of hours. We did find that there was snow at the higher elevations on the trails, eg. Bryce was always snow covered although the roads in the park were not.

Capitol reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges and Mesa Verde were al fine and we encountered not issues with snow on the roads or on trails in the parks. Canyon de Chelley and Monument Valley were also fine, but we did encounter a fierce wind/sand storm a couple of times in the Monument Valley area. By late afternoon in late April, visibility was worse than in the worst New England blizzard I have ever driven in.

The temperature has always been ideal for hiking in the parks at this time and the hours of daylight are longer than they are in Sept/Oct.

Well, that sounds promising - especially Mesa Verde; I had read in a Fodor's guide that snow was possible, even likely, at Mesa Verde into May. So maybe it's just a question of the tour/hike schedule for the areas not being as complete as summer. I'd believe the part about the sandstorm, having been trapped in the Vegas airport for 10 hrs. one April day. Thanks for the info.