My question involves criminal law for the state of: California
My friends and I went for a sunrise hike, arrived at at the park at around 5:30am. Since it was dark, we saw one sign that said that park opens at 6:30am, but we ignored it (dumb move) since we knew many other people who have gone hiking here to see the sunrise, didn't think it was a big deal, etc. The gate was unlocked, we walked very quietly, no flashlights or music, and only whispered to each other to communicate, absolutely no drugs or alcohol on us.
All four of us received tickets about 5 minutes into the hike for violating park curfew. The cops said the nearby residents have made many noise complaints and parking complaints about hikers being on the trail too early in the morning. The time on the ticket is 5:45am. None of us have ever gotten into trouble like this before so we were panicking and the cops reassured us by telling us this is less serious than jaywalking, and that all we have to do is pay a fine. Well, the fine is $280/person. We are all definitely guilty of being at the park too early, but is there anything we can do to reduce the fine or do community service instead? We are all college students with minimum wage jobs, we have to pay almost $300 just for going for a hike 45 min too early? How can something less serious than jay walking be so expensive? We weren't even being loud at all. I would go to court to see what I can do but I am afraid of having to pay additional court fines on top of the ticket.
The courtesy notice in the mail defines our offense as violating park curfew which is 5:00 am - 10:00 pm, we definitely were not at the park before 5am and have screenshots to prove that, not to mention the time on the ticket is 5:45, well after 5:00. On our way out when the sun was up, we could see that there were more signs about park hours. Is there anything we can do?

