California Trip

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Annie Lovell alovell@dial.devon-cc.gov.uk
Hi All, Truly amazed at how helpful you guys have been. We'll be travelling 5th Aug Santa Barbara area. 
6/7/8th Aug Monterey area and moving up to San Francisco.
Anyone in these areas know if we could ride and camp. Just love to be able to experience that. 
14th Aug/19th Aug travelling from Swanton possibly towards the Sierra Nevada down to LA. Grand Canyon is too wonderful to do to quickly, so we're not. Death Valley is crazy this time of year, so any suggestions of places of wildlife interest and different habits we should try. We have the "Rough Guide to California" and a large map. Various parks look interesting eg Sierra Nat Forest, Sequoia. Best/most interesting route back to LA is where?
Anyone suggest good stopping of points for the night?
Thanks for your help, Annie and Rob Lovell English endurance riders on an adventure!