in my ever so humble opinion, the hiker and the ranger were azzholes. I have had many run ins with park rangers and they are invariably low quality persons, of dubious intelligence, and over blown egos.
My experience has been just the opposite. I've generally found park rangers to be polite and approachable and quite knowledgeable. Here, state forest rangers have to have a college degree in the natural sciences as well as go thru the state police academy. In this case the ranger couldn't have been nicer initially. He was friendly and polite. If the hiker had just said "Sorry, I didn't know" or "I didn't see the sign." and had gotten back on the designated trail, there would have been no problem and would have just got a warning.
One of my oldest friends was a state forest ranger and he's generally an easy going guy, He used to tell me stories of some of his interactions with arrogant jerks who would give him a hard time and challenge his authority. He had the same powers as any other LEO in the state and those who gave him a hard time, got to see his other side. Heck, in this state they can even give out traffic tickets. He told me of a story once where he saw a driver speeding and passing on a double yellow. To protect the public, he pulled him over and not wanting to deal with the hassles of going to court for a traffic infraction, he was just going to give him a stern warning until - - - the driver gave him a hard time and said to his passenger, "Ah, he's just a Ranger, he can't give me a ticket." Out came the citation book.
My wife volunteers at a small National Park. It's a grassland that is habitat for the endangered Short-Eared Owl. It gets lots of birders and photographers from late Fall to early Spring when the owls show up. Most are respectful of the birds and obey the rules put in place to protect them and the habitat. However, there are always the azz holes who think they are special and that rules just don't apply to them. It's the behavior of the azz holes that result in additional restrictions that effect everyone. If you've had "many run-ins with park rangers" you might want to question your behavior and whether you might be one of them azz holes..
