The investigation of how geologists engage in field mapping, including strategies and behaviors, is an open area of research with significant potential for identifying connections to best instructional practices. While study of experts in an array of disciplines has yielded general conclusions about the nature of expertise, the consideration of geoscience experts, especially in authentic settings, is virtually unstudied. Field mapping involves a complex interplay between the individual mapper and the natural environment. Both cognition and behavior influence the observations and interpretations that ultimately yield the map, a representation of the natural world. We set out to establish a methodology, adapted from existing studies of expertise, that would allow us to document cognitive and behavioral processes involved in situated map-making and generate preliminary insights into expert-novice differences in mapping behavior and cognition. We present here a theoretically-driven, mixed methods methodology, and suggest that navigation coupled with field artifact and audio data provide the richest and most meaningful insights into geocognition in the field.