By Corey Morris

Vidette Editor

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Who doesn’t want to believe they’re destined for something — the purposefulness rendered through the promise of “destiny” is unsurpassed in its ability to inspire and validate.

Miles Wenzel, the park ranger for Lake Sylvia State Park as of August 2016, might very well have been destined to become a park ranger. And if it wasn’t his destiny, his life most certainly had been leaning in that direction.

“My senior project at Ocosta High School was about being a park ranger,” Wenzel, now 33, said sitting behind a desk at the ranger station at Lake Sylvia Park on a cold day in January. He casually held a coffee mug during the interview. “It’s kind of what I’ve wanted to be since I was 18.”

The position of park ranger in Grays Harbor County is a combination of Wenzel’s past that embodies the foundation of his days as an impressionable youth. Wenzel, the son of a Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Deputy (Paul Wenzel), grew up in Westport, where parks and the outdoors are plentiful.

“It had a lot of influence on me being next to the parks,” he said.

When he turned 18, he started working at the parks as seasonal help.

“It clicked. I liked what I was doing,” he explained.

He was doing it all, he said. He mowed the grassy areas, trimmed throughout the park, operated a tractor. That variety (“No two days are ever the same,” he says) was what he liked best from the work.

“A ranger is all of that plus law enforcement,” Wenzel said. “I saw that as culminating into a career for myself.”

Wenzel moved his family to the Montesano park. His wife, Rachel, teaches English at Elma High School. The couple has two daughters, Vada, 5, and Keira, 2.

Since 2007, Wenzel had been working at Twin Harbors State Park as a park ranger. That was after six seasons of seasonal work split evenly between Ocean City State Park at the North Beach and Twin Harbors.

His time leading up to his current position also includes academia. Wenzel attended Grays Harbor College, Central Washington University, and ultimately graduated and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The Evergreen State College.

Former Park Ranger Darrell Hopkins found an opportunity to move up within the state parks service and now works as a region manager at headquarters in Olympia. Hopkins’ opportunity left an opening at Lake Sylvia State Park.

A combination of Wenzel’s determination and hard work, as well as the good fortune of Hopkins’ promotion, created an opportunity for Wenzel. And Wenzel seized it.

“In this position I’m able to manage a budget and lead the projects coming through,” Wenzel said. “I’m finally at a park where I can use my degree and my education.”

Beneath the trees, around the lake, on the trails, there are people. That’s a big part of the job, people. And Wenzel says he’s found good people at Lake Sylvia State Park.

“We have people who, if they’re not here everyday, then they’re here two or three times per week,” Wenzel said. “I see the same people quite often enjoying what we have to offer.”

While Wenzel walked around the park, across the frosted bridge spanning the frozen lake, he said Lake Sylvia State Park not only is a state park, but it’s also treated like a city park. He noted that the park had been saved from the financial chopping block in the past, and he gave credit to the Friends of Schafer and Lake Sylvia (FOSLS) for their work to keep the park alive and funded.

Within his first month on the job, Wenzel was treated to the Fall Festival at Lake Sylvia.

“It’s been great working with them (FOSLS) on these events,” Wenzel said. He also said he was surprised by the park attendance for the cross country meet in the fall. “It’s great having a lot of people in the park.”

Yeah — he still mows and trims. And yes, he sometimes has to enforce rules. But for Wenzel, the ultimate goal — above the tall trees he still admires and the campers he guides — is having a good state park.

“Providing a good, safe place is a great thing to aspire to,” Wenzel said.

And his report card, if you will, is evident throughout the park.

“I can track my progress. The good I do I can see in the happiness of others’ faces,” Wenzel said.