Get to Know Your Park Staff

One of the most engaging park rangers you’ll ever meet, Miles was born and raised in Fresno, California and moved to Washington State in 2006 just after graduating college. He was a theater arts major in college—no surprise when you consider Miles’ gift for telling an entertaining story and comfort in front of an audience. But he decided to pursue a more practical career and took classes in college in criminology before looking for park ranger openings.  Deciding to settle in Washington State, Miles was able to secure a job at Cape Disappointment. 

After about a year at Cape Disappointment State Park an opening came up at Sequim Bay, close to his wife’s family, so they moved there where the ranger job was more “generalist” with duties in every area, including maintenance.  Wishing to do more law enforcement on the job, he left State Parks to be a 911 dispatcher but quickly determined that with his dyslexia it was not an ideal job. After a series of other jobs to keep employment benefits going, Miles accepted a part-time job at Washington State Parks in Forks and then finally at Fort Flagler, but as there was the recession at the time, and the job was only part time, Miles was urged to work in a variety of other careers. Thankfully, he was able to return to his career as a park ranger and came back to Fort Flagler in 2017. He has been here ever since.  

His wife Lily and he have worked on theater productions through the years in various locations but now that he has children, ages 4 and 7, he and his wife dedicate their time to raising their family and living at Fort Flagler.  His favorite aspect of being a ranger is the variety of tasks and responsibilities for organization and people-oriented jobs, and he especially enjoys the quiet times when he can appreciate the beauty of Fort Flagler Park.  Miles loves the spirit of volunteerism that comes with a group like the Friends of Fort Flagler and he appreciates all the collaboration that makes the park the best it can be.