Pinecrest is an unincorporated community in Tuolumne County, California, United States. Pinecrest is located near Pinecrest Lake northwest of Mi-Wuk Village.  Pinecrest Lake sits in what was once a meadow surrounded by granite outcroppings. Originally, Pinecrest Lake was called Strawberry Flat because of the wild strawberries that once grew there. In the 1960s the name was officially changed to Pinecrest. The campground adjacent to the lake is under the white fir, cedar, and sugar pine trees.
Pinecrest Lake is the last in a series of dams constructed on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River. In the beginning the purpose was to divert water via ditches and flumes to the mining claims in and around Columbia and the foothills. Much of this aqueduct system remains intact today and is still used as a portion of the main water system for the surrounding area. A large part of the aqueduct in the forest was built with wooden flumes, builders carried portable sawmills into the forest to mill the trees into boards in order to construct the flumes. The present dam at Pinecrest, previously called Lower Strawberry Reservoir Dam, was built by Sierra and San Francisco Power Company for hydroelectric power, the water is managed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.


The area is in the Sierra Nevada Coniferous Forests ecoregion. The forest here consists of white fir, incense cedar, sugar pine and Jeffrey pine. Common animals include black bear, mule deer and a variety of squirrels including Douglas squirrels which are common at Pinecrest Lake Campground. There are also many birds such as Steller's jays, Clark's nutcrackers and chickadees that live in this area year round; there is also an abundance of waterfowl during migration periods such as mallards or Canada geese (Anas platyrhynchos).

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