Pendleton honors Malibu’s Solstice Canyon

By Barbara Burke · Mon Aug 17 2026

Local interior designer Shannon Ggem’s vision becomes reality with new wool blanket celebrating the colors, landscapes of the Santa Monica Mountains

“Malibu’s Solstice Canyon Park is so special and the Pendleton blanket really brings such a sense of pride to have a treasure like this honoring our surroundings!”  declared Shannon Ggem, a local interior designer who specializes in whole-home remodeling. Ggem, who often selects design elements that include a home’s outdoor surroundings, felt compelled to ask the Pendleton company to create a blanket celebrating the Santa Monica Mountains and, particularly, Solstice Canyon. 

A few years after the Woolsey Fire, Ggem wrote to Pendleton designers suggesting the company create the blanket, stating, “I’m an interior designer in the Los Angeles area and I always wish there was a Pendleton pattern down here so I could install it in client homes. We have the nation’s largest urban national park — the Santa Monica National Recreation Area has more than 5 million neighbors as the park extends from the city of Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley.”

Elaborating, Ggem continued her pitch: “From the beaches of Malibu to the Hollywood Sign, the National Recreation Area has captivating natural beauty with live oaks, valley oak woodlands, chaparral-covered mountains, powerful creeks and beautiful mountains. Our park offers 157,700 acres of protected land for people to reconnect with the natural beauty of Southern California.” 

Although it took a couple of years, Ggem was delighted when Pendleton reached out, announcing that her wish had come true. “I am delighted to have been a catalyst for the creation of the Santa Monica Mountains blanket,” Ggem shared. “I am so grateful we have a blanket designed by the amazing talent and craft people of Pendleton!”

Although there are many photographs and artistic portrayals of the Santa Monica Mountains in paintings, drawings, and photographs, Ggem was motivated to inspire Pendleton to honor our mountains in textile art. 

Blending traditional craftsmanship with modern design, Pendleton’s design team carefully focused on capturing and honoring the hues imbuing Solstice Canyon’s stunning stratas and its eroded rock formations that developed over thousands of years. The Solstice Canyon wool jacquard blanket is offered in twin/robe size, measuring 64 by 80 inches, ismade of a fabric that is uncombed for sharper pattern definition and features unnapped jacquard 82% pure virgin wool and 18% cotton with whipstitched bindings. It is woven and finished in Pendleton’s U.S. woolen mills. 

Ever since the Solstice Canyon Park opened on summer solstice in 1988, Malibuites and visitors from all over the world have been awed by the Canyon’s stunning strata bands infused with pale-to-maroon and reddish-brown elements containing iron oxides and Paleoscene and Eocene conglomerates sporting older basal layers featuring brownish-white cobblestone and coarse conglomerate sandstones and the Canyon’s distinct deep-maroon and lavender-to-red claybeds. The Canyon’s sandstone, mudstone, and shale are chemically rich in clay minerals, iron oxides, and silicon dioxides, known in laymen's terms as quartz grains. As one hikes along the Canyon’s Rising Sun Trail and comes upon the Tropical Terrace ruins, he is embraced by Sespe formations set within prominent terrestrial redbed sequences gracing the upper canyon. 

The Solstice Canyon blanket celebrates the panoply of panoramic colors one embraces as he hikes alongside the creek shaded by oaks and sycamores. During winter rains, one can enjoy Solstice waterfalls. Each blanket comes with a story card entitled, “Solstice Canyon” sharing the inspiration for the blanket’s design. The card states, “California’s Rising Sun Trailhead offers spectacular views of Solstice Canyon, home to many weathered formations in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The largest urban national park in the United States offers 500 miles of hiking trails. Colorful bands within the blanket’s pattern represent powerful creeks that have carved canyons among the famed peaks: Sugarloaf, Lady Face, and Saddle Peak. Bands of chaparral cover the mountains, and triangular shapes in the design represent local and imported trees, alive with wild parrots.”

For her part, Ggem is thoroughly impressed by the blanket, stating, “I so appreciate all the gorgeous colors and the mountain in the blanket’s design!” Pausing to fully appreciate the blanket’s gorgeous patterns, she commented. “It looks like it has a reflection of a mountain which gives me vibes of beautiful Malibou Lake. How cool! It’s beautifully done!”