If the idea of US-2 appeals, and you're headed for the Pacific Northwest before turning south to San Diego, and you have plenty of time, and you want to stay off the Autoroutes, then...

The first thing I'd recommend is that you head north! Take ON-410 up to ON-10/ON-9/ON-6 up to the Trans-Canada, ON-17, at Espanola. Note that this involves taking the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry from Tobermory over to South Baymouth. Cross into the States at Sault Ste. Marie and take I-75 south for a few miles to MI-28 west. This will take you along the southern shore of Lake Superior and give you access to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and eventually join US-2 near Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. However, rather than staying on US-2 through Minnesota and westward, I'd suggest you start to drop a bit southward, using MN-23 south from Duluth all the way down to US-14 at Florence MN. This does a couple of things, It lets you avoid the Brakken oil fields of North Dakota and sets you up to see the many attractions of western South Dakota.

Once you're on US-14 you can follow that all the way west to I-90 at Wall SD. Unfortunately, there are places, especially in the west, where the old highways have been completely replaced by Interstates. They are now technically 'duplexed', that is they share the same physical roadway, so there is no way to really avoid the Interstates in a few places and for a few miles. Just south of Wall is Badlands National Park, and if you enter from Wall and travel through the park from west to east, you can leave the park and take SD-377 south to SD-44 west which will take you to Rapid City. South of Rapid City there are a number of worthwhile attractions including Mount Rushmore, Wind and Jewel Caves, and the Crazy Horse Memorial. You can then leave that area on US-385 north up to Deadwood and then continue on US-85 north towards Belle Fourche, taking SD-34/WY-24 west to Devils Tower National Monument. When done there, return on WY-24 the way you came to WY-112 north to US-212 west. Where US-212 joins I-90 is the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Then at Hardin MT you can leave I-90 and take US-87 across to Billings. From Billings to Laurel you're again going to have to be on I-90, but then you get to leave it for one of the most scenic roads (albeit quite twisty) in the west, US-212 - the Beartooth Highway, up into Yellowstone National Park. While in the Yellowstone area be sure to also take the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway down to Grand Tetons National Park.

Leave Yellowstone through West Yellowstone MT and take US-20 through Idaho past Craters of the Moon National Monument to Mountain Home. Between Mountain Home and Boise US-20 and US-30 are duplexed with I-84, but the old US-30 roadbed still exists, running parallel to I-84 just beside it. So you can take that if you prefer. From Boise, US-20/US-26 will get you to Portland in a relatively straightforward manner, but I'd suggest that you take OR-35 north from near Mount Hood to the town of Hood River and follow the Columbia River on I-84 and the Historic Columbia River Highway (old US-30) into Portland. Finish up by taking either US-30 or US-26 to the coast and then follow the Pacific Coast Highway (US-101/CA-1) down through San Francisco to Los Angeles. Both Oregon and northern California have several state parks on the coast, Redwoods National park is near Orick, and Point Reyes National Seashore is just north of San Francisco. From L.A. to San Diego, you can follow the coast if you like but it will be quite built up with lots of shore towns and traffic, and through Camp Pendleton you will have no choice but I-5, so from L.A. to S.D. I-5 is probably your route of choice.

I see that Dave has made a different routing suggestion and that's fine. There are dozens of ways you could go, especially since you don't need or even want to stick to the Interstates. The final choice will be up to you, all we can do is offer suggestions.

AZBuck