Well, I was being liberal with the proximity. There are some redwoods at the south end of Big Sur, just north of Peidras Blancas, which is just north of San Simeon, which is just north of Morro Bay.
There are two types of Redwood trees in CA-- the coastal redwoods (which are quite spectacular) and what are commonly called the giant sequoias (which I think you are referring to). The latter are found inland, in the mountains. To see them, go to Sequoia National Park or Yosemite. I would recommend Yosemite. But, being winter, it’ll be rough going. You could be snowed out.
As for camping on the coast in Feb, you can never tell. It might be 65 deg and sunny in the daytime, and 40 deg at night. Or it might be a howling rainstorm in the mid 50s, winds blowing at 30+ mph. This being an El Nino year, there are increased odds of the latter. It’s going to be the luck of the draw for you. If the weather is good, the drive up the coast on 1 is great. As a NorCal person, I beg you not to call it the PCH or to call San Francisco either “Frisco” or “San Fran”. And don’t add a “the” in front of road numbers. It’s Highway 1, not The 1. 
I am actually camping at half moon bay in March - rolling the dice. I expect it to be quite cold, and likely rain. I didn’t realize I was within driving distance of you, John.
Go on line and check out state and county parks in California. Some you can get into on short notice some are booked months in advance. Get a camping book for California. Because is the state and county parks are booked usually there are privately owned parks near the state parks.
If you drive up highway 1 you will see some beautiful areas. By the way part of highway 1 is referred to as the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). If you get to Big Basin just above Santa Cruz and you like steam trains in Felton is the Roaring Camp steam train.
As others have mentioned, “sunny” California can be anything but along the coast but it can be dealt with. Can’t fault any of the abovementioned suggestions and must agree with araminty that a week is a short time but it can be really worth it.
I sure hope that was Año Nuevo State Park in the original Spanish… 
Half Moon Bay is always cold, especially in the summer! But the best weather at the coast (or in SF) is usually April and Oct. I was in Carmel one weekend last October and it hit 90 deg. It almost never gets above 75 in the summer.
If you do a trip down the coast, stop in at Boony Doon winery in Davenport. One of my favorite tasting rooms. It’s about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz.
Sorry. Did not mean to offend.
I think planning on hitting Yosemite or Sequoia–as wonderful as they are in winter–could be problematic. Both parks require you to have chains. I don’t know how strictly they enforce it, but it would **not **be smart to go into those mountains without them.
You could probably get to Yosemite via CA140, which is considered an all-weather route, BUT–that road has been closed intermittently by rockslides over the last several years…there’s a closure right now in fact. With the heavy rains that we’ve had and more in the forecast, I wouldn’t count on being able to get to Yosemite that way.
Oh, another cool thing about the Santa Cruz redwoods–you can go zip lining though them in Mt. Hermon. It gives you a perspective of those trees that you can’t get any other way.
i agree. It would be a real stroke of luck to be able to get into the park and see stuff. Last year you probably could have, as we got ZERO inches of rain in Jan. This year is turning out to be quite different (thankfully).
February, stick to the coast. It’s beautiful.
If you do head up north of Monterey, make a quick stop in Moss Landing. It’s a tiny little coastal town with not much to speak of. But… there have been some sea otters hanging out all day right off Highway 1 where you pull into the harbor and you can pull over and watch them. They’re maybe 30 yards away. Very cool. Can’t guarantee they will still be there in Feb, but I’ve been down that way about 5 times in the last few months and they have always been there. Sometimes just 1, but sometimes as many as 3. Literally, right across the street from The Whole Enchilada (great, but pricey, Mexican restaurant right on Hwy 1.)
Cambria, on the coast south of Monterey, is a beautiful little town with some great restaurants. If you stay on the beach side of Highway 1, there are little motels which have no TV or phone connections. They’re there for the peace and quiet. You can hear the ocean waves right outside your door. It’s also just south of San Simeon, where Hearst Castle is located.
120’s a much higher elevation route, but even in winter should be accessible up to the Crane Flat area. Chains would still be a good idea. I’ve only ever needed them heading up to Badger Pass on the Wawona Rd/41, but there have been a couple winter storms already, so I’d bet on needing them on any of the high altitude routes.
I can’t really second the idea of sticking to the coast in February. Both Yosemite and Sequoia are beautiful in the winter. If Sailboat’s comfortable with winter driving and snow/ice and wants winter beauty and huge trees, that’s one way to get it.
Someone’s gonna tear them a new one…:
I might mention that if you are staying in San Diego, and planning on spending part of your week-or-so elsewhere in the state, remember it is a big state, and it will be easy to underestimate how long it takes to get somewhere, especially in Southern CA. While it could be a 5 hour drive from the northern parts of L.A. to SF, it could easily be 3 hours to get to that area from San Diego due to traffic. You could spend an entire, exhausting day driving from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area. Traffic in the Bay Area is also bad if timed wrongly. Additionally, as mentioned, we are having a wet winter for a nice change. People in CA do not know how to drive when the roads have water on them - you could be stuck on a major highway for a while even in light rain due to accidents.
There are a lot of good suggestions here on where to stop and see the things you like, but be sure to add time to whatever your driving plans are.
People are making good points about it being a wet year. As such, even though I stand behind my previous suggestion of a drive up PCH, it often times get blocked by land/mudslides. Which I can’t imagine is very fun on some of those parts that are quite precipitous.
Are you flying in and out of San Diego? Have you considered flying home out of San Francisco or Sacramento so you don’t have to spend the time driving back to San Diego?
Or, OR San Jose or Oakland…both airports are much smaller and easier to deal with than SFO. There is no reason to go to Sacramento…ever…
Just adding that Sequoia & King Canyon National Park have the biggest redwoods. Bigger than Yosemite.
I would second others saying that in the Winter this is going to be problematic, and that the coastal redwoods probably make more sense. And they are really awesome. Muir Woods is really cool, but it’s almost too easy of a flat meandering little walk in the woods.
If you are feeling real adventurous, head up to Mattole Beach. You pass through a HUGE redwood forest to get there, and there won’t be another person for miles most likely. You’ll find a nice, quite year-round campground. I’m guessing you’ll never see a road like the one you find again. Google Earth just doesn’t cut it this time.
http://www.camping-usa.com/campdetails/24708/
You have been warned.
Given it’ll be an El Nino, make contingency plans for wherever you go. I’m probably just jaded from living in California and seemingly always having to detour on Highway 1 in Big Sur or Gorda because of some rock slide or other. The weather is usually rainy and foggy along the coast anyway in February/March, and God knows an El Nino will make it even gloomier, if it’s anything like the 1982 one I remember. The hills should be green at least, and in not much danger of burning.
Depending on how spendy you feel like being, I’d skip Nepenthe, and try Ventana or see if the Post Ranch does lunch. Alternately, is the Highlands’ Inn restaurant still open? IMHO, Nepenthe was great for coffee, and if you had a passion for macrame, but I didn’t care for the food. The Whole Enchilada is decent, American Mexican food. Great tequila selection, or at least they did when my sister bartended there, 15-20 years ago. (Jeez, has it been that long?) Blink, and you’ll miss Moss Landing. See if the local high school is selling artichokes for fundraisers. I think I paid for part of my senior trip to D.C. that way, even longer ago. There are usually farm stands in the Castroville/Watsonville area, selling flats cheaply, of the local produce: strawberries and artichokes were the ones I remember the most.
Hearst Castle is neat, just for the artwork—I really liked the red figure and black figure Grecian pottery they had. But it is a bit schlocky. Anyway, stop often at the turnouts on Highway 1 and take pictures. It’s indescribably pretty. Just don’t go past the boulders in the turnouts and fall down the cliffs.
No one’s mentioned the Monterey Bay Aquarium yet. You both should go. It’s the best aquarium I’ve ever been to, better than the Shedd in Chicago or the Steinhart in SF, or any of the ones in Texas.
As to trees, yeah, redwoods are the redonkulously tall ones, that are also pretty wide. Think forests of Endor from Return of the Jedi. Sequoias aren’t quite as tall, but they’re stupidly huge and wide. Naturally, they aren’t that close to each other. I didn’t personally think that Kings Canyon National Park was all that, if you weren’t planning on going to the General Grant Sequoia Grove (we didn’t). Yosemite is expensive, but worth the visit. It’s another one of those things that’s “really that pretty”.
Humboldt/Mendocino is the place to really get a look at redwoods, but that’s going to be to hell and gone from where you’ll be driving. Does Big Basin still have a lot of tall redwoods? Easier to get there if you’re already visiting Monterey/Big Sur/Moss Landing than it is to drive all the way to Muir Woods. I’d heard Big Sur/Julia Pffeiffer Burns Park had some redwoods, but I don’t know how many.
If you want to try wine tasting in CA, or visiting the ridiculous number of fantastic breweries in San Diego, and elsewhere in CA, that’s a whole separate post. Ditto if you golf.
Nepenthe has the history, though. Dick and Liz in The Sandpiper??? At The Whole Enchilada, you go for the seafood dishes. Even seafood tacos are fantastic-- everything is right off the dock. The shrimp soup is out of this world. But it’s fun to stop in ML to check out the sea mammals. Better even than the Aquarium (which is indeed worth a visit). There are still a whole bunch of produce stands south of ML on Hwy 1 (that short stretch that is still one lane only in each direction). And yeah, the Tequila selection at TWE is still wonderful. Have a Margarita or two.
True. You can even golf on the cheap in Monterey/Carmel area if you know where and when to go. So much good wine tasting between LA and SF it’s crazy. No need to go to Napa (not that Napa is bad, it’s just out of the way, overcrowded and overpriced).