Sequoia and Yosemite are on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Death Valley is on the east side. There aren't many ways across those mountains.
You can go around them to the south. You can take CA120 through Yosemite. Or you can take one of the highways to the north.
Staying on the west side and then going up the coast makes sense. US101 is your best choice for going up the coast. If you want, drive CA1 (up through Fort Bragg) in your Cooper.
The diagonal from Mt Shasta area to Reno, and then US395 is a good way of getting to the east side of the Sierras. North of I80 the mountains do not have the well defined ridge that makes crossing the Sierras challenging.
People headed to the Redwoods often take CA20 from the Central Valley over to US101. But if you are coming from San Fran. you can catch 101 earlier.
