Northern California / PNW.....

You can do a trip around SF. The groves south of SF, the road connecting Los Gatos to Pescadero is riddled with them. Incredible roads and trees. North of SF up 1 to Stinson, go to Red Rock beach, has many roads inland, like up to Muir, that have great groves.

You could stay in SF every night, or never. Places like Ben Lomond, La Honda, and Stinson would make great spots for rentals.

Research Panther beach parking and that whole beach area, hole in the wall...secret cave (if you do a night in Ben Lomond), and maybe even a spot in SF called Land’s End Park...great views of the GG and down the coast, if you’re gamey enough to get out on the rocks.

I’m just talking about stringing together beautiful groves, not visiting the famous monsters.

Lots of Redwoods in Marin County just across the golden gate from SF. I would stay in Sausalito (expensive and touristy), Mill Valley (expensive but very close to Muir Woods) or Fairfax which is about 20 minutes from Muir Woods but a really cool little town with several pubs and restaurants. The Mountain bike museum is there as well and where mountain biking got its start with guys riding down Mount Tamalpais. A buddy from LSU lives in Gary Fisher's old house in San Anselmo just adjacent to Fairfax...Gary Fisher is an icon in the mountain biking world. If I was living in the bay area Fairfax would be high on my list of where to live. Another old LSU classmate from NOLA lives there and I visit him when I'm out there. He calls the town "Mayberry on acid".

Redwoods at Jedediah Smith Redwoods state park, the Stout Memorial Grove, and the National Redwood forest are fantastic. Much better than SF area for redwoods - Muir Woods.
You could fly to Medford, OR and drive from there. Went that way 2 years ago. I have been to SF area and the N Cal area. Drive from Medford to Eureka was dramatic and enjoyable.

My favorite redwood area around San Francisco that isn’t as crowded as Muir Woods is Purisima creek, it is south of San Francisco near half moon bay. It is a great hike and way less crowded than anything near Muir Woods. The half moon Bay Area is nice little beach towns and you can continue down the 1 to Santa Cruz and head back over the mountains to San Jose to make a day of it. My favorite spot for redwoods when I lived out there was redwood regional park in the Oakland hills.

Just came back from the Central Coast.

Did Malibu/Santa Barbara/Solvang/Paso Robles/Big Sur/Carmel/Monterey....great trip!

We avoided the major areas like LA and San Fran...will do those when Covid isn't ruining those cities as much...

The places we traveled we were able to pretty much do everything normal... it was great. California gets a bad wrap because of those running their state etc, but it truly is beautiful and breathktaking....we must have said WOW so many times..