As everyone said, SR 1 is best driven north to south so you are on the ocean side of the road.
You mentioned SR 1 north of San Francisco, while Big Sur is south of SF. The problem is that SR 1 is parallel to inland US 101, a major route, but there are few places to get over the hill (Coast Range) from 101. North of SF you could waste a lot of time just seeing cows at the dairy farms etc getting over to the coast. Pretty rural country but not unique. My apple orchard is in that region, inland from the coast west of Santa Rosa. Dry farming, the moisture comes from ocean fog.
My line of thinking is driving down R1 from Monterey to Big Sur, then drive back. I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that given where R1 is blocked around Lucia on Rt 1, that would be my best choice to see the best highlights of R1.
The issue is where to access R1 from Angels Camp and what direction to go (with perhaps an overnight stay) and then back to Angles Camp?
Honestly, Santa Barbara was pushing it one way IMO but it didn't seem interesting driving to Santa Barbara without going down R1 and then going back up north.
With Lucia closed on R1, and leaving and returning back to Angels Camp, which way on R1 from where to where, so this idiot can look it up on a map
I just figures Monterey was a good night stop to check out R1 since Lucia is closed. Believe me guys, I'm opened to detailed instructions on what to do on R1.
Below, everything in the red circle is my line of thinking (black circle approximately angels camp). Keep in mind, this trip is for my son who is graduating high school and leaving us in September. The kid has never been west of Tennessee. He's the one who picked Yosemite, so I figure since the kid hasn't seen a real mountain range, just driving around the mountains even not hitting Yosemite, he should find it appealing.
Reality is once he leaves home, the only thing we'll need is a cat(s) sitter as the dogs will go to the the kennel for boarding and THEN my wife and I will become free to go out on our own to explore the area whenever we want. This is a big reason why "wine county" really doesn't interest us on this trip. Besides that, the only thing I drink is a Riesling or a moscato, and I've never taken wine seriously, and it's just me, don't understand people who do