Men leaping from sandstone mountains, visitors trying to sneak past rangers, and motorists channeling their inner teenager are among the poor behaviors showing up in the National Park System as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.

In the case of the wannabe flying squirrel at Zion National Park, Marshall Miller could run but he couldn't hide from park rangers, who were alerted that someone would try to BASE jump from either the Great White Throne or Cable Mountain on March 28. The rangers spotted Miller, tracked him down, and hauled him in front of a judge, who fined the Salt Lake City man $5,000 and banned him from Zion for two years.

While both Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona are closed, that hasn't stopped some visitors from trying to enter the parks. And it really hasn't been difficult.

At Great Smoky, some roads travel into the park for upwards of a half-mile before an entrance station is encountered, said park spokesperson Dana Soehn.

"We have about 20 entrances around the park that lead into the park, and each one of them is blocked by gates or some kind of a barrier, Jersey barrier, or cones," she said. "Basically our message is that we're asking people to comply with the closure. That helps eliminate the need for park employees to contact the people directly. And helps better protect our employees who are still working from putting themselves at risk for closure contact with people. But, it is a violation of a park closure, and our park rangers have the legal authority and discretion to issue warnings or tickets with fines as appropriate.

"A closure violation is a misdemeanor and associated with fines up to $5,000," said Soehn. "Each day I'm still getting reports of activity from our law enforcement rangers, and they've been making several contacts each day with people who have walked or have driven in, making them aware of the closure, and have made verbal warnings. But for the most part people are complying."

At Sunset Crater in Arizona, a loop road runs from U.S. 89 through the Coconino Forest, through Sunset Crater, and through Wupatki National Monument before bending back and reconnecting with U.S. 89. The road has remained open to access U.S. Forest Service lands and private residences, and while motorists aren't supposed to stop in the national monuments and get out for a hike, more than a few have tried.

At Shenandoah, before the park closed entirely to the public on Wednesday, some motorists felt the reduced traffic on Skyline Drive was a signal that they could speed down the scenic road and turn donuts in parking areas and overlooks.

Not everyone agreed with the park's closure.

"It's ridiculous that you can't drive through the park. It makes no sense that people in their cars are punished for the few that want to gather," read one comment on Shenandoah's Facebook page. "This should be re-visited and other restrictions made."

"...those of us that know how to act are punished!!!!!! We ride horses and are always socially distanced and now have nowhere to go!!!!" added another.

A few of those who left comments blamed the decision by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to waive entrance fees to the parks and encourage people to visit them, as the entrance fee no longer served as a disincentive for some to bypass Shenandoah.

"The biggest mistake might have been lifting the fee, maybe you wouldn't need to close if people still had to pay to visit? This makes me incredibly sad," wrote one.

This sort of behavior isn't new to the National Park System during closures, whatever their cause.

Back in October 2013, when the federal government shut down due to a funding impasse, a young man thought riding a dirt bike through Great Smoky Mountains would make for a great story for Road & Track magazine. At the time, Zach Bowman boasted about his feat of gunning a friend's 250cc dirt bike through a creek that runs past the Parson Branch Road. He also videotaped his escapade with a helmet-cam, and embedded it in the story on the website.

"If you have the means, the determination, and the willingness to risk a brush with law enforcement, you can enjoy our protected lands as they're rarely viewed: without flocks of tourists spoiling the experience," he wrote. "I'm not typically one for politics. My life soldiers on, regardless of the state of our government, so I saw no need to burden myself with concern over the latest antics on Capitol Hill."

After he had been cited by rangers and found himself in a courtroom before a judge, Bowman slightly changed his tune.

"I broke into the park to prove a point about the idiocy of the shutdown, and I wrote about the experience to remind people how truly special our public lands are," he later recounted in another article.

Though he faced the prospect of 18 months in jail and $15,000 in fines, Bowman's lawyer managed to negotiate that down to 40 hours of community service in the park. Cleaning toilets.

There have been other scofflaws, and worse, during previous shutdowns. During the 2013 shutdown two individuals climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, camped out, and boasted about it in Instagram posts. During the shutdown in early 2018, someone poached a cow elk in Zion National Park.