Autumn colors in Hokkaido

Hello,
We are eager to spend several days in order to experience and enjoy the autumn colors. Yet, I'd like this forum advise please:
1. Does it make sense to fly in early October, for 5 days from Tokyo to Asahikawa, rent a car at the airport, and spend 5 nights at the same place (Mountain lodge, Nutapukaushipe, at Asahidake Onsen, Higashikawa-cho, Kamikawa-gun), and make from there day trips around?
2. Will in early October the fall leaves will be colored already in Hokkaido?
3. Any totally diferrent approach is recommended?
Another point to mention about us - is that we hate rushing from place to place, we prefer getting to know an area we come to, taking into account that we leave other interesting places to the next visit…
I thank you in advance for your inputs!
tammy

Early october seems good for most of Hokkaido

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2014_when.html

A good way to get a good idea of how a place looks at a certain time of the year is simply to type its name (preferably in Japanese) into Google images, most image-sharing sites such as Flickr will display the date at which a picture was taken. For autumn colors, you might want to add the keyword 紅葉 to your search.

Thanks Firas.
Have you travelled there?
If so, does it make sence to stay in one place and do STAR day trips?
thanks again!

Although there is no way to accurately predict the weather, under average years early Oct is a very good time for autumn foliage in the Daisetsuzan National Park and Sounkyo is a popular base for the region. And if you can start your trip from late or even mid Sept highly worthwhile side trips from Sounkyo can be made to beautiful Ginsendai and Daisetsu Kogen for spectacular koyo.
http://ramblingonmyhokkaido.blog112.fc2.com/blog-entry-77.html (Ginsendai)
http://ramblingonmyhokkaido.blog112.fc2.com/blog-entry-95.html (Daisetsu Kogen Onsen)

Spending 5 days in Sounkyo seems a luxury when there are so many wonderful places waiting to be explored in Hokkaido. Solely for Sounkyo 2 days at the most should be enough. Asahikawa itself is worth a stay for the best ramen in Hokkaido. Personally we rate the ramen there the best in the whole of Japan! Not far south of Asahikawa are Biei and Furano. Although summer is a better time for flowers in that region, during early Oct we still saw plenty of colourful flower fields in Farm Tomita in Furano and the Hills of Zerubu and Atom in Biei. Even without flowers Biei is the ideal destination for a self-drive road trip as it has the best countryside scenery in Hokkaido, IMO.

Thank William5!
We certainly plan to explore the area, yet, as we prefer not moving from place to place each night, and we'll have our own rented car we thought of settling there and returning each day from other part of the Park.
I'd appreciate if you illuminate me, if you think that it is totally wrong concept.
And, the links you sent are great. Thanks!!

Hi Tammy

There is no right or wrong for your query. It is perfectly understandable that many like the idea of using just one base for side trips to avoid packing and unpacking all the time. For us we do not mind changing hotels and would rather maximize our travelling time on the road to cut down driving back and forth. So it really comes down to individual preference. One thing to note is that Hokkaido is BIG, so don't under-estimate the distance needed to travel from one place to another or else you will end up behind the driving wheel most of the time.

We had stayed in each of the 4 major destinations I mentioned earlier (Asahikawa, Sounkyo, Biei and Furano) but if you really want just one base for all, Asahikawa should be your choice as it lies on a more central location. The drive east from Asahikawa to Sounkyo is about 75 min. The drive south from Asahikawa to Furano is about 70 min and Biei is roughly halfway in between, only about 35 min drive from Asahikawa.