Goodenough Lake is located 160 metres south of the west end of Meadow Lake (EMPR Bulletin #4). Meadow Lake is 30 kilometres west-northwest of 70 Mile House.

The lake is a semi-evaporitic playa lake. It is located in the "Green Timber Plateau" area (EMPR Bulletin 4), a semi-arid plateau area averaging 1130 metres elevation which is part of the Cariboo Plateau and host to several playa lakes. The area is underlain by alkaline plateau basalt flows of the Miocene to Pleistocene Chilcotin Group, mantled by a thin cover of glacial till and glaciofluvial sediments. Annual precipitation averages between 300 and 400 millimetres (EMPR Paper 1991-1).

Goodenough Lake contains sodium carbonate-rich brine and "Winter and Permanent Crystal" (natron or hydrated sodium carbonate). At the end of the dry season in 1937 (EMPR Bulletin 4) the lake was completely dry and the surface of the lake was covered with a white encrustation from 5 millimetres to 2.5 centimetres thick (EMPR Bulletin #4) approximately 6.5 hectares in size. The surface encrustation at Goodenough Lake is underlain by 20 centimetres of greenish muddy material containing 50 to 75 per cent natron crystals underlain by black oozy mud. An analysis of "fresh winter crystal" (EMPR Bulletin 4) yielded: 35.54 per cent sodium carbonate, 1.34 per cent sodium bicarbonate and 62.89 per cent water. Between 2700 and 4500 tonnes are estimated to be present on the surface of Goodenough Lake (EMPR Bulletin 4).

Between 1922 and 1923, a small evaporating and crystallizing plant was tested, but was unsuccessful. Canadian Occidental Petroleum staked the Soda 53 claim in 1989 and collected a water sample in 1989 and completed analyses for sodium carbonate and other alkalai salts (Assessment Report 20080). Canoxy also completed an airborne infrared survey to test for dissolved solids in the lakewaters.