Not only are caves awesome to explore and find wonder in, they're also awesome to learn about from the point of view of geological processes.
For starters we needed to see and use cave ingredients--by dissolving real limestone with acid. We started out by dripping the acid drop by drop, but then one of my sons wanted some more dramatic results. (Don't worry about his fingers, though. Our acid of choice was vinegar.)
Knowing that limestone and acid are the key ingredients to cave formation, we then made our own caves using modeling clay, sugar cubes, and water. You start out with a solid "rock" made of different "minerals" and then the sugar/limestone is eroded inside the clay/other rock and a cavity is formed.
After the initial demonstration each child made a new "cave" in whatever shape and form they wanted. One of them made the kind of cave that is hidden from the eye and would have to be discovered, but if you paid attention to the waterfall coming out the side of the mountain you might guess at what was inside.
We also did an experiment with Epsom salt to create stalactites and stalagmites.
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