I am sure others who have traveled more recently than I will weigh in soon, but in the interim here's some info from a Santa Cruz resident who used to travel all the time but now stays home with hubby and tyke (when she isn't working):

Yosemite is indeed beautiful, but after the rainy season has started (which it just did, yesterday), the through roads are often snowed in, so you would most likely have to go in and come out to the west. This makes it a lengthy though potentially worthwhile side trip.

Las Vegas appeals to some, but there's not much to recommend the scenery around it. The drive is (IMHO) very long and tedious.

Can't speak to Death Valley.

I can, however, venture that a trip from SF to LA concentrating on Coast Highway 1 and hilly Highway 101 -- as opposed to the dreary but fast, Central Valley route, Interstate 5 -- makes a fair compromise between speed and scenery. The coastline is spectacular, there are many Spanish Californian-era missions and the like to visit (more on that later if you are interested; I'd have to do some looking-up), plus Monterey and Santa Barbara are wonderful cities to stroll through, and there are "roadside attractions" such as Hearst Castle (an early 20th century U.S. version of a great house) and Solvang (a deliberately quaint, rather twee Danish enclave) to visit on the way as well.

Happy to provide more detail on anything that intrigues you. Cheers!

Claire